'Pools centre-half and skipper Sam Collins spoke to his club's official website and the Hartlepool Mail ahead of his side's League One match against Carlisle at Victoria Park tomorrow afternoon, Collins looking forward to the derby game:
“It’s the derby this weekend and it’s a shame there’s not more of them really. I end up classing a lot of the Yorkshire games as derbies as well, just because they’re quite close and, of course, it’s where I’m from. But this is a good one for the fans because there is that bit of rivalry and we’re both northern clubs. Down the years they’ve always been good games, especially for us last season.
“We have got to put the home form from last year to bed and just concentrate on what is happening now, but we did speak about that before the season started and it is something we are really keen to put right and improve on. But, sometimes it’s not always down to the defenders, it’s the team – we attack as a team and defend as a team. If you are winning your home games then you can go away from home and pick up a point and it is not a bad result because it is difficult to play away from home, we have got off to a fairly good start at home and we want to keep that going.
“You have got to try to build that momentum, that is what we want to do, so we are looking to do that as often as we can. Because if you put little runs together, four or five games or whatever it is where you are picking up results then you can soon find yourself in the top ten or the top six. But, tomorrow will be a tough game, they are a good team, play good football, but hopefully we can keep the home run going, get another good result, another three points and a clean sheet and see where it takes us.”
In team news for the home side tomorrow they will just be missing one player through injury, goalkeeper Andy Rafferty sidelined after undergoing knee surgery in mid-August. Elsewhere in the squad meanwhile veteran striker Steve Howard will be available for selection despite being on a course of three injections for a knee problem, and winger Jonathan Franks has suffered no further problems after going off with cramp late on in Hartlepool’s 2-0 home win over Scunthorpe last Saturday.
The referee for tomorrow afternoon's match is James Adcock from Long Eaton on the Derbyshire/Nottinghamshire border and he will be assisted down the lines by Jason Whiteley from Morley near Leeds and Lee Metcalfe from Preston. Meanwhile the fourth official is Geoff Liddle from Darlington.